CPC’s largest of three naptha crackers to resume full operations within a few weeks

21-Sep-10

The largest of state-owned CPC Corp Taiwan's three naphtha crackers should resume full operations within a few weeks after shutting down because of Typhoon Fanapi, as per Reuters. The 450,000 tpa No. 5 cracker in southern Taiwan has been brought down to check for problems following an outage caused by Typhoon Fanapi on Sunday. Despite high water and heavy rains in the region, the cracker does not appear to be flooded. Operations at the cracker running at 85% before the outage, are expected to resume gradually within a month. Exports from CPC are not expected to be impacted in any major way. A maintenance shutdown is planned at CPC’s 380,000 tpa No. 4 cracker for 45 days starting in early November. This will result in stockpiling as the company will not be processing at least 140,000 tons of naphtha during the shutdown period.